It was a moment of thanksgiving for the scores of beneficiaries, who had gathered here on Saturday, to commemorate the first anniversary of the 108 emergency response service in Nagapattinam.
Over 10,928 beneficiaries' access to medical care was made possible with the ambulance services.
This included access to medical care for over 2,457 pregnant women, 2,539 accident cases, 739 cases of cardiac arrests, 505 police emergencies and 9 fire service needs.
About 31 deliveries had taken place inside the ambulances, well equipped with the necessary logistics to ensure healthy delivery.
About 368 critical lives were saved in the course of the last one year.
Speaking on the occasion, Collector C. Munianathan said the service that commenced with eight ambulances last year here was increased to 11 ambulances.
The objective was to reduce casualty by providing immediate medical care during first few minutes called the ‘golden hour' before the patient reached the hospital, he said.
Mr.Munianathan also suggested that optimal use would be four persons for each ambulance in each block. As of now, only three persons from each block called for the facility and this could be increased.
As of date, about 385 ambulances were functioning in Tamil Nadu.
It has been proposed to increase the number of ambulances to 545 by 2011.
Emergency Management Technicians (EMTs) were honoured with life saver awards for their dedicated services.
The EMTs introduced last year, function on the basis of calls received on ‘108' toll free number through a centralised emergency response centre located at Chennai.
Santosh Kumar, Superintendent of Police was among those present.
